Renew Our Days יהוה

In the Nicene Creed we read: 

● We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, visible and invisible. 

● We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father; through him, all things were made. 

Before I expound on this it is important to know who I am addressing. Well, first of all, I must address myself. I am not immune to any of this and every one of us, including myself, is off to some degree in the process of sanctification. There have been many instances in my walk with the Lord where I have followed too much the devices and desires of my own heart and made the Lord smaller in the process. Thankfully the Lord will have none of it. Having said that, it also isn’t that there are individual people I’m secretly referencing although my memory holds many conversations. Its not even errant churches that I’m speaking of, although I easily could. It is more of a composite of the stark contrast between the several years I spent worshiping and studying the Tanakh-Old Testament, and Brit Chadasha-New Testament with Jews who follow Yeshua as their promised Messiah compared with many conversations over the last twenty-five years within Christian circles, across denominations including laymen and women, elders, deacons, pastors, missionaries, and seminary professors. It is pervasive that our belief of this oneness is out of balance. This imbalance can be found in Christian thought, Christian dialogue, Christian theology, Christian sermons, Christian books, Christian music, Christian seminaries, etc. So I suppose I’m writing to everyone in the Modern Western Church, including myself. Also, nothing I am writing is groundbreaking. There is nothing new under the sun. If anything it is an echo of the likes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was very concerned about discipleship being neglected. I also think of the Apostle Paul’s words about desiring to feed believers the strong meat of scripture and not just milk. 

The Nicene Creed and the canon of scripture teach that God is one. The God of Israel is a triune God consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is so familiar to us that we can easily stop seeing it in its entirety. This is largely because over time we have consistently chosen a polar end of Biblical paradoxes choosing the end which is most comfortable and palatable on the surface. We think we must be able to categorize and explain everything. Think about that for a second. The scriptures themselves warn us to not be wise in our own eyes and to lean not upon our own understanding. The scriptures also teach us: “There are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25) It is pure hubris to believe that we can master divinity. I think in our time we must see that Jesus is not the kinder version of the God of the Tanakh. Jesus and the Father are one. This oneness means that while some profound changes were ushered in by the New Covenant, the God of the Tanakh did not change. There is a subtle shift in perception that has occurred over time. Subtle shifts over the arch of much time can make a large interval between points. Large intervals like this can be very dangerous. Think of a large ship adjusting course slightly and sailing from one continent to another. At first the adjustment may seem insignificant, but following the adjusted course will land the vessel far from the original and intended destination. Think of the small seemingly harmless foxes who urinate on the vines almost invisibly destroying them over time in Solomon’s writing: “Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.” (Song of Solomon 2:15) 

I. God is one: 

Most if not all seasoned Christians if asked, would give the correct theological answer to the question: Are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit one God? So what am I stammering on about then? We have become experts in taking information into our brains and regurgitating it but relationally this oneness often is void in application and in our lives as a result. We have an easy time accepting that the God of the Tanakh is fully represented in the person of Jesus, and this is certainly true; hallelujah! However, this isn't a train of thought allowed only to travel in one direction: Old Testament God to Jesus. It is also Jesus to Old Testament God. This is how we hold many necessary paradoxes in balance such as the fact that our God is love (1 John 4:7-21), and our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Consistently choosing to emphasize one end of several biblical paradoxes creates an unbiblical version of Jesus. This leads to many believers speaking and living as if Jesus and Avinu Melkeinu-Our Father (Isaiah ben Amoz 63:16), Our King (Isaiah ben Amoz 33:22) of the Old Testament are not truly one. This blinds us to the fact that the paradox of the Lord’s grace and his righteous judgment is found throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. We make much of the grace of God and little of his righteous judgment. This leads us to assume a casual posture toward our sin, smothering our fear of the Lord even though the fear of the Lord is found throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. We make much of Jesus’ extending mercy and grace to us and little of his scourging us in love. We like the forgiving Jesus but look away from him as he makes a whip of cords driving people out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. We ignore him as he pours out the coins of the money changers and overturns their tables. We make much of Jesus’ opening the way to salvation but ignore his destroying unbelievers. (Jude 1:5 ESV) We often make much of our ability through Jesus to: “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) God's people, on the other hand, are described in the New Testament as those who are "living in the fear of the Lord." (Acts 9:31)

The risen and ascended Christ poured out his Spirit upon his church, and, as we have seen from Isaiah's prophecy, the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. Yet we often choose the easy end of these paradoxes. We say things like, “Every time we talk about Gods’ wrath we must talk about it in the context of his love.” I agree but we never hear any among us say, “Every time we talk about God’s love we must talk about it in the context of God’s wrath.” Now I’m not suggesting we swing to the opposite polar end and play Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God on a loop or begin preaching fire and brimstone like the street preachers we all loathe to hear. However, there is something to be said to stand and speak truth in love from the middle, shining the light on both ends of the paradoxes given to us. After all, Jesus is the eschatological judge who will say to some, “ I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:23) Jesus is also the one who said, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear the One who, after you have been killed, has the authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:5) The fear of the Lord is directly connected to our magnification of him in our lives. When we magnify the the Lord until all else shrinks down we have zero fear. So when we fear the Lord we are our most at peace. It is a peace that can be had in the midst of turmoil, grief, and pain.

Many Christians believe that the God of the Bible would never send painful trials, temporal afflictions, or any suffering to them as a means of sanctification or discipline. I’ve heard many say something like, “A loving God would never do that to me.” We make little of the refiner’s fire (1 Peter 1:7) and this is the byproduct of a secular humanist age where we believe God must meet our moral standards, our minuscule definitions of love, justice, goodness, etc. We have become selective on which scriptures we accept even though Paul the Apostle wrote: “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) We are out of balance and warped because we constantly choose to preach and teach the easy end of the Biblical paradoxes that run through the Old Testament and the New Testament. We have public leaders like Andy Stanley in 2018 suggesting that Christian leaders consider un-hitching their ministries from the Old Testament. I suppose part of this is because we think people will be offended by its content. Now I know Andy’s idea received pushback, but still we’ve largely traded the fear of the Lord for the fear of man. I also see how we desire to feel as though we understand God and his methods, which is ridiculous. Trillions of years from now we will still be learning new things about the Immortal One who has no beginning or end. We can relationally, even intimately know the Ancient of Days, however, he will always be beyond our ability to understand and grasp in his entirety. This is good news though because if it weren't so we’d eventually run out of new revelation. He’d be larger than us yet finite, not who he claims to be (Psalm 29:10) (1Timothy 1:17), and well, we’d eventually be so bored we would despair. Eternity is a long time for nothing new. Not to mention having to sit forever in the reality that he lied about Himself. All too often we’ve traded a strong sovereign God for a weak one, the Lion of Judah for a sweet house cat. Even the conversion of Paul the Apostle (who wrote roughly half the New Testament) was one where he fell off his horse due to piercing light and was blinded for days. Paul went on as a church planter and missionary while being kidnapped (Acts 21:27), beaten (Acts 21:30-31; 23:3), threatened (Acts 22:22; 27:42), arrested many times (Acts 21:33; 22:24, 31; 23:35; 28:16), accused in lawsuits (Acts 21:34; 22:30; 24:1-2; 25:2, 7; 28:4), interrogated (Acts 25:24-27), ridiculed (Acts 26:24), ignored (Acts 27:11), shipwrecked (Acts 27:41) and bitten by a viper (Acts 28:3). Tradition says that Paul is eventually executed for his work, although this is not recounted anywhere in the Bible. Paul, knowing the Tanakh, attributes his sufferings as events where God is an active agent. “The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me,” (Acts 20:23) Choosing one end of a biblical paradox would be to rob oneself of the strong meat of scripture that gave Paul the endurance to suffer faithfully. Learning much of our God and how to delight in Him by way of magnification is a primary way to endure. How often do we use any of the hundreds of beautiful and meaningful names and titles of God found in scripture other than simply referring to him as either Jesus, Christ, Lord, or God? This problem has slowly grown over time. By the mid-2nd century CE, the church was dominated by leaders without any ethnic or communal ties to Israel or Judaism. The leaders were Gentile converts educated within the various schools of philosophy. In hindsight, they were named "the Church Fathers" for their contributions to Christianity, the most prolific writers being: Justin Martyr (Rome, 100-165 CE), Bishop Irenaeus (Lyon, 130-202 CE), and Bishop Tertullian (Carthage, 155-220 CE). However, the foundation of Judaism remained vitally important for the 2nd-century Church. The new Christian proclamations had to remain connected to the older ones. The Church Fathers continued to use the Tanakh for their explanations of Christianity. However, the movement to distance Jesus from the God of the Tanakh is also woven into time. Here is just one example: The oldest manuscript of Jude/Thaddeus 1:5 that we have is P72 dated to the 3rd/4th century, possibly one hundred years earlier than the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. P72 contains the rather strange reading-God Christ which faithful translations use the name Jesus.

“Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”(Jude1:5ESV) 

This is a direct quote from the ESV Study Bible: 

“Jesus, then judged and destroyed those in Israel who escaped from Egypt but failed to keep trusting in God, and therefore they did not reach the Promised Land.” (Jude/Thaddeus 1:5) Instead of the name “Jesus,” some Greek manuscripts have ho Kyrios, “the Lord,” and some English translations follow that reading. Most of the oldest and most reliable manuscripts have lesous (“Jesus”).”

It is inscrutable to distance Jesus from his own words about himself as the God of the Old Testament. The God of Abraham revealed Himself to Moses with the statement, “I AM.” “Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them? ”God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:13-14). 

Jesus made seven I Am statements in the gospel of John communicating clearly that he and the Old Testament God are one: 

1. “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). 

2. “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12).

3. “I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:7-9). 

4. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep…I am the good shepherd; and I know my sheep, and am known by My own.” (John 10:11, 14). 

5. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). 

6. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). 

7. “I am the true vine and My Father is the vinedresser… I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:1-5). 

The God of the Tanakh has not changed by sending His Son. The power of sin and death over his people has. This would be a good place to segway into what Jesus changed and what he did not. 

II. What Jesus did and did not change: 

The writers of the Old Testament would agree that it would be contrary to itself to appropriate Old Testament laws after the Messiah has come as though he had yet to come. Jesus does bring profound changes for humans. However, the God of the Old Testament is Jesus and he has never and will never change. There is no variability in him. Here are the ways Jesus brought change: 

1. Christ died for believers’ sins, putting a permanent end to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. “He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.” (Hebrews 7:27) Hallelujah! Jesus’ offering of his own blood removes the eternal power of death and sin from his people. 

2. The new covenant in Jesus’ blood is poured out for all nations and peoples of the earth. (Luke 22:20) This is why the original twelve Jewish apostles were told to: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). 

3. Jesus teaches pre-Old Testament Mosaic law returning to God’s original plan in creation. He teaches that the law in some areas was a temporary compromise with man’s sin, “but in the beginning, it was not so.” For example, with the laws of divorce, he says the law permitting divorce was owing to “your hardness of heart.” (Mark 10:5) He then reaches back to Genesis 2:24 teaching that God made man and woman one flesh, that no one should separate this union (Mark 10:4–6). 

4. Our posture towards the Mosaic law is altered. A critical portion of scripture amplifying this is Romans 7:4–6: “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another.” However, this doesn’t mean that commandments are nullified in the Christian’s walk because we also have 1 Corinthians 7:19: “For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.” We also read: 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” It is complex but there are a few New Testament lenses to see the existing laws of God through. The first is love: Matthew 22:37–40: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” The second is sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel. 1 Timothy 1:8: “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully.” Then it gives a list of commandments and concludes, “and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:10). The third is to to reference what is rooted in the order of nature as God created it? 

In all that Jesus changed it is important to see that nothing about God’s character or his person changed at all. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament as much as he is the God of the New Testament. In Revelations 13:8 we see that the crucifixion of Jesus was planned before the creation of Earth. “and all who dwell on Earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” 

Our propensity to try and minimize God stems from a combination of our fallen human nature desiring to make God smaller and more manageable for the comfort of leaning on our own understanding, (Proverbs 3:5) and the ability (falsely) to fit him into the finite grid through which we see the world. This is the opposite of magnification; a path opposite to faith and trust. We can see this clearly in Matthew chapter five as Jesus famously preaches the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus continually says, “you have heard it said.” In other words, your earthly teachers have interpreted Torah in a way that makes God smaller by making God’s law softer and easier to follow. Jesus clearly did not say as he had many times before, “as it is written,” when he quoted Torah. After saying, “you have heard it said,” he blows up the small box of the earthly teachers by saying, “but I say unto you.” He then goes on to apply the law to the human heart, magnifying God and using the law as it was meant to be used: to show that God’s holiness can never be attained by man as seen in the impossibility of perfectly keeping the Mosaic law. This inclination of making the God of Israel smaller is also the result of pulling away from the teachings of the Old Testament. Many Christians are functionally illiterate when it comes to the Tanakh/Old Testament. This isn't surprising as the teaching emphasis has been on Yeshua/Jesus as the Logos and Telos; which is great! However, we are out of balance. While there is no doubt that the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood is new and improved; Jesus is not the new and improved God or the kinder version of the Old Testament God. Jesus is the Logos and the Telos, but Jesus himself said: “I and the Father are one.”(John 10:30) Rather surprisingly Jesus also said,” You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28) Now, the fact that the Son took on human flesh and made himself subservient to the Father’s will in no way denies the deity of the Son, nor does it diminish his essential equality with the Father. The “greatness” spoken of in this verse, then, relates to the role, not to the essence. Our King of glory, the LORD of hosts, Jesus in his wisdom, left us no viable biblical path to treat him as a newer, kinder version of the God of the Tanakh. This truth has many implications that are far-reaching and broad in scope to the discipleship of those who seek to follow him. The ways this one God deals with his people have not changed. He is allowed to send into our temporal lives the gift of temporal pain and suffering to refine us, to humble, deepen, and grow our faith in his love and his power. 

We have an easier time accepting that the God of the Tanakh is fully represented in the person of Jesus. This is certainly true; Hallelujah! However, this isn't a train of thought only allowed to move in one direction: Old Testament God to Jesus. It is also Jesus to Old Testament God. This is how we hold many necessary paradoxes in balance such as the fact that our God is love (1 John 4:7-21), and our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). In fact, my writing is nothing new as many New Testament passages teach us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God of the Tanakh (Colossians 1:15). There are difficult passages full of very strong words, especially coming from the Prince of Peace as outlined by Isaiah ben Amoz: “For to us a child is born, to us, a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) It is also difficult to digest scripture penned by one of Jesus’ chosen twelve apostles like Thaddeus/Jude who pens in the New Testament: “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” Or Jesus saying: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34) This is a good segue. I want anyone who is reading this to know that my motive in writing it is not to paint Jesus as tyrannical or unloving; quite the contrary. I simply want to point out that our conception of his love and power is anemic. Also, I will continue to write about the human impulse to make the God of Israel smaller. We can do this without being cognizant of it. If the verse about Jesus, the Lion of Judah, the Prince of Peace destroying unbelievers makes you want to recoil then you are not alone. Please continue to read as the result of holding both ends of biblical paradoxes and digesting the strong meat of scripture is what aids us in enduring the wilderness. 

III. The spiritual danger of all milk-no meat 

There is a reason the Apostle Paul wrote about his desire to feed Christians the strong meat of scripture and not just milk; in a word, it was for maturity. Milk will not be enough to sustain us in the wilderness that is present or the one that is coming. The wilderness is where we learn to be honest. We will need the strong meat of biblical teaching to endure individually and collectively. Our falsely one-sided views of God’s oneness and the false idea of God having variability leads us to consistently choose one end of biblical paradoxes to the exclusion of the interrelated element losing the unity of opposites that hold us in balance. If we do not allow God the room to use pain for our sanctification or correction then no wonder there will be a great falling away when many peoples’ expectations are dashed to pieces in tribulation. Yahweh is not our genie. We have enjoyed much ease in the West and this has become a false comfort. God declares war on anything in his disciples’ lives that becomes a hindrance to the intimacy he desires. He loves us too much to share us with another god. In his kindness and in his time he will continue to remove from us our false comforts including a false image of himself that we have made. This is the nature of El Qanna which means “the Lord is jealous.” This is another name God gives himself in Exodus 20:5, 34:14, and in Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9, 6:15 and this name describes an aspect of God’s love for his people: "For you must not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is El Qanna, is a jealous God." Jealousy can be constructive, as Paul notes to the church in Corinth: “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy...” (2 Corinthians 11.2). Throughout the Old Testament God often likens himself to Israel's husband, wanting all their love and obedience for himself. In the Old Testament context, idolatry is defined as spiritual adultery. This same illustration is used in the New Testament as well, the church being the bride of Christ. This makes this particular name of God relevant to Jews and Christians alike.

The safe God we understand is nothing more than a vending machine for grace that will vanish in our tribulations. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about grace as such: “Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.” Our selective treatment of scripture leads many to hold a theologia gloriae-theology of glory instead of a theologia crucis-theology of the cross. While we will rule and reign, sharing in the glorification of Christ, it is not until he returns and we see him face to face. The selfish and impatient application of theologia gloriae can be seen in the infamous protest at the United States capital on January 6, 2021.  Now I realize that the danger level of this protest is debated. However, protesters carried images of Jesus’ face, images of Jesus wearing a Make America Great Again baseball cap, while large crucifixes were set up. People came armed and with a variety of weapons: assault rifles, pistols, stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats, zip-tie handcuffs, and flagpoles wielded as clubs. Our view of Jesus being a vending machine of never-ending grace and self-esteem without the other end of the paradox of who Jesus is has also produced the rotten fruit of rampant self-absorbed hyperindividualism. We have largely rejected God-esteem for self-esteem. Exchanging the cross for self-help and psychological means. In turn we say what a loving God would and wouldn’t do. We tell God what expectations and definitions he must meet. The self has become the main form of reality. 

What shall we do then? Well, I do not have the solution per se. I would offer what I see in the Bible which simply put is: repent, pray and return. I believe the appropriate response is the plea found in Lamentations 5:21 - “Turn us back to you Yahweh, and let us come back; renew our days as of old.”

Ruler of All

Christ Pantocrator |  מלך היקום

Pantocrator literally translates via Latin from Greek as ‘ruler of all’. In the translation from Hebrew to Greek the Septuagint uses Pantocrator in the place of Adonai Tzva’ot-Lord of Hosts, and El Shaddai-God Almighty. Even though his power is unfathomable, I want the viewer to feel comfortable looking into Jesus’ eyes. I hope to portray the universal power of his love. 

While painting and meditating on the sovereignty of Jesus as God, I began to think about the symbol of his holding a book, or how sometimes he’s depicted holding a sphere or globe. I thought about the truth in that symbol; that my life, yours, everything is in his hands. All power is his. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)  This is what led me to choose to decorate the book he’s holding with the hexagon. Hexagons show up very often in nature. We see hexagons in the bee’s hive. The northern polar atmosphere of Saturn forms a hexagon. Water circulating at high speeds forms a hexagon. A dragonfly’s eye contains many thousands of hexagons. Snowflakes are hexagons. I could literally go on for a long time. Structurally speaking, the formation of hexagons could stretch through eternity without leaving gaps or overlapping. They also form the highest structural strength while using the least material. Aside from the intelligent design of the shape, I also thought about how the scriptures describe God’s word as honey. I wanted to paint the truth of his hands holding absolutely everything because he delights in it as we delight in the sweetness of honey.

Mary, Mother of God

I’ve begun my journey painting through the liturgical year beginning with Advent. In these existentially dreadful times, I wanted to emphasize the wonder of the incarnation as well as the faithful raising of Jesus by Mary. Mary loved even though she knew very painful events would come. She poured herself out as her son would go on to do on the cross. Mary was no stranger to temporary afflictions and grief, her pregnancy by the Holy Spirit brought difficulty and pain. She endured being doubted and shunned by her community, yet when the angel Gabriel greeted Mary he said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

On the fortieth day from Jesus’ birth, it was necessary to travel to Jerusalem for Mary to be cleansed, for Jesus to be presented to the Lord in the temple, and to offer two young pigeons as a sacrifice according to the Law of Moses. Mary’s offering revealed her poverty as pigeons were sold to those who could not afford a lamb. When Jesus was presented to Simeon at the temple, he took Jesus into his arms and praised God saying, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” He then turned towards Mary and said, “Behold this child is appointed for the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also so that the thoughts from many hearts will be revealed.”

Later, Magi followed the writings of the prophets and traveled months to see Jesus. Upon their arrival, they worshipped and presented gifts to him. One of the presents was myrrh for his burial. Imagine receiving myrrh for your baby’s burial after hearing Simeon’s words. But for Mary, at Jesus’ death, when the sword pierced her soul, God brought salvation and joy to her and to the world.

The Jesus I love

Jesus crashed the regional economy of Gergesa in order to restore dignity and provide spiritual healing to one outcast man. Jesus valued the alleviating of one man’s spiritual and physical suffering over the area’s economy.

We can read about this encounter in Mark 5:1-20. After sailing across the Sea of Galilee, Jesus is approached by a demon possessed man. The man was isolated and living in tombs. No one could keep him bound. Even chains could not hold him. Night and day the man cut himself with sharp stones and cried out. When he saw Jesus a ways off, he ran and fell before him. The demons within the man cried out loudly saying, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many.” The demons begged Jesus to send them into a nearby herd of about two thousand pigs. Jesus gave them permission to enter the pigs, then they ran down a steep bank into the sea and were drowned.

Those who were tending the pigs ran to the town and told the people what happened. When the town’s people came to see what was going on, they saw the man in his right mind. Instead of being happy that the man was made well, they began to plead with Jesus to leave their region for fear of his power, and for fear of more financial loss. Jesus valued one man more than much property. This is the Jesus I love.

Coronavirus and our Capacity for God

Coronavirus and our Capacity for God - Diptych part

1.

The coronavirus has taken the world hostage. A sovereign God has disrupted literally every person’s normal routine on Earth. If you are like me, this gets your attention. I’ve been praying and thinking a lot more about things that the noise of life tends to hush. The business I own has me in several grocery stores around Richmond on a daily basis. I have seen much hoarding. I have heard angry voices lifted up. I have seen empty shelves and many faces full of fear and worry. I’ve even seen third party security guards hired and posted to oversee the toilet paper supply in an effort to maintain civility. It has been disturbing to see these behaviors in stores on a micro level while internally processing and praying about things on a macro level. I wrestled while the world seemed to descend into fear. Of course I also experienced waves of feeling what everyone else was feeling: an anxiousness about the future, loved ones’ health, supply chains, the global economy, and my ability to provide for my family. It is always difficult to come to terms with God’s sovereignty in times of suffering however, our opportunities to trust the God of the Bible often come to us as gifts wrapped in pain.

As I spent more time in prayer and meditation, I reminded myself that God is love. However, his love takes many forms. In Genesis chapter eleven, God’s love disrupted the peoples’ building of the Tower of Babel. God’s kindness did this so that they would not become deeply entrenched in a false perception of self sufficiency and greatness. God opposes pride and exalts humility because his ultimate desire is for an eternal relationship with each of us. Somewhere along this line of thought, I found myself meditating on two very different chapters in Exodus: chapter sixteen - “Bread from Heaven,” and chapter thirty two - “The Golden Calf.” For two weeks now I’ve studied them and completed two drawings of these events as a meditation. I believe one of the things the Lord is accomplishing through this pandemic is the expansion of our capacity for himself.

Daily Bread and Hoarding - Exodus 16

The people of Israel were traveling in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. The Lord sent quail for meat every evening and bread every morning. When the dew of the desert floor evaporated, there was a thin layer of fine bread like frost on the ground. There was always enough to feed everyone. The Lord’s singular instruction was that they only gather enough for one day, then double it once a week for the Sabbath rest. The idea of daily bread is also mentioned in the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 as Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Interestingly, the people disobeyed this instruction right away and hoarded some. The bread that was hoarded bred worms and stank.

We are the very same people. God wants to keep his people on a diet of daily bread because in his wisdom he knows that keeping us dependent is what is best for us. It keeps us in a tighter relationship with him. This is largely how he grows our capacity for himself. We hate this dependence and rebel against it much. We quickly begin to trust the resource over its provider. We want to stockpile. We want to feel in control and at ease in what we have instead of who we have. It is in us to want something visible and tangible rather than an invisible God who metes daily portions. It is difficult and counter-cultural to maintain the right perspective. Our path to freedom is dependence. May our capacity for God’s love expand. Until we feast at heaven’s great banquet, may we abide with the giver of daily bread by remembering that it’s not what we have but who we have.

Coronavirus and our Capacity for God - Diptych part

2.

Apis and the Plague - Exodus 32

Very soon after Moses left the people of Israel to meet with God on Mount Sinai, the people went to Aaron and made a god for themselves, the golden calf. Moses was their visible leader and in his absence the people wanted a visible god. Israel worshiped the golden calf and sacrificed to it. As I researched the chapter, I found that the calf was fashioned after the Egyptian god Apis. Apis was seen as a powerful intermediary between humans and more powerful deities. Apis was believed to bring fertility, riches, and abundance. The Egyptians also referred to their kings as “strong bulls” and treated them as gods. This is why Apis is depicted as a striding bull with a solar disc and Uraeus (the sacred serpent which symbolized the king’s power) between its horns.

The people of Israel had seen the God of Abraham part the Red Sea, deliver them from the Egyptian army, and miraculously feed them quail and bread. Still, their desire was to throw off the daily dependence upon an invisible God, even though his glory was visible. They hated dependence and craved a visible god who promised tangible abundance. Israel wanted to hoard again. It is like looking in the mirror. All too often we put our faith in something or someone lesser than God because they are visible and promise to bring us abundance and independence instead of dependence and daily bread. This is the way our capacity for God reduces. Idolatry is the way we invite God’s disruption via pain. His jealous love is to rescue us by turning us away from eternal disaster by sending temporal affliction. The last words of the chapter are from the Lord: “I will visit their sin upon them.” Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

Hindrances

In ancient times the coming of a king was preceded by special preparation. A herald was sent ahead in order to prepare the road on which the king would be traveling. Low areas and holes were filled in, high rough places that would be a hindrance were cut down and made smooth, and crooked areas straightened. We've seen this in recent times when Queen Elizabeth II visited the Bahamas. In preparation for her coming the roads she planned to be traveling were completely resurfaced.  While there could be many different actions taken to meet the specific needs in the roads' preparation, it essentially boiled down to two categories that were needed.  In one case the road had low areas and holes that needed to be filled in, risen up, and made smooth.  In the other case all hindrances would be removed.  High areas would be leveled, trees would be cut down, stones would be removed, and crooked areas made straight. This provides us with a useful picture of two responses Jesus had toward peoples' inquiry of eternal life during his public ministry.

1.  Filling the low areas- The Gospel of Luke 23: 26-43

During Jesus' crucifixion there were two criminals, one on each side of him. All three were nailed to their crosses and awaiting certain physical death.  The two criminals were mocking Jesus along with the crowd. As the hours wore on one of the criminal's conscience is pricked. His fellow criminal jeers at Jesus, "Are you not the Christ?  Save yourself and us!" The newly conscientious criminal then rebukes his counterpart. "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong."  Then he turned toward Jesus and said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."  Then Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." We don't know the name of the criminal that went to Paradise with Jesus that day. We can probably profile him somewhat successfully as a man who had never been baptized, he probably was not in a good standing within a religious community. He may have never even been in a synagogue or been literate enough to read scripture. He wasn't a "good person." All we have are his few comments and actions prior to his physical death. This simplicity however speaks volumes. The first happening is the miracle of the criminal's conscience being awakened. He ideologically pulled away from the crowd and stopped mocking Jesus. He realized that he and his criminal counterpart deserved death for the criminal activities they willfully engaged in. He also realized that Jesus is pure and does not deserve the punishment that he is taking. He then showed a belief in the afterlife and Jesus' right as God to rule over it. His request to be remembered was a plea for mercy which further reflects his simple understanding that he has no hope in his own goodness. His salvation was utterly dependent on divine grace and that the distribution of that grace was Jesus' power. This awareness of utter hopelessness apart from Jesus is the conscientious criminal's awareness that he is a pot-hole that needs to be filled.  Once he asks for the filling, Jesus immediately fills him and raises him up.   Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."  The King entered in.

2.  Leveling the high areas- The Gospels of Matthew 19: 16-22 / Mark 10: 17-22 / Luke 18: 18-23

One day Jesus was taking local children in his arms and speaking blessings to them. As he began to set out on his journey a man ran up to him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good?  No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments:  'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.' "  And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.  And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing:  go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me."  Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Jesus' response to the young man is very different than the response he would later give to the convicted criminal crucified beside him. What we know about Jesus from his own words lets us know that his overarching goal for these men was the same. So why such mercy to the criminal while slamming the young man into the Law of Moses? Firstly the young man's way of addressing Jesus as "Good Teacher" does not recognize Jesus' deity.  Instead he sees Jesus as a teacher sent by God who has eternal life and may know how he can acquire it for himself. Jesus response: "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." is not a denial of his deity, rather he was opening the dialogue up for the man to readdress Jesus correctly as Lord or to admit the truth of his own sinful state.  Jesus being God incarnate was able to see the man's heart, the very seat of his will, priorities, appetites, affections, and loyalties. He saw that the young man's spiritual hindrance was his inability or unwillingness to admit his own spiritual bankruptcy.  So Jesus continued speaking to the need of leveling the high area of pride and self righteousness so that the King may enter in. Jesus was not suggesting that following the Law of Moses was the way to earn salvation. The standards laid out by God in the Law are impossible to perfectly meet. The Law was designed to raise awareness of our need for divine mercy and grace. In love Jesus spoke to the man's need to understand that attempting to accomplish eternal life in his own strength and by his own goodness was futile. Instead of becoming aware, the young man dug his heels in and recommended himself again to Jesus claiming that he had followed the Law perfectly since he was a youth and expected this would earn him salvation. Jesus swiped at the self deceived and exalted heart of the man again:   “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing:  go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me." This is not Jesus giving philanthropic terms of salvation.  This statement is custom fit for this man as Jesus sees his inner-being. Eternal life was not a coin to add to the man's riches.

Essentially Jesus was saying to the man: To have eternal life you must acknowledge the truth of your poverty in spirit while acknowledging me as God, having the exclusive power to extend my saving grace and mercy to you. Once this awareness dawns on you, you would be willing to surrender to me in love and give up anything I commanded. I would have no competitor within you. This is why the rich young man turned away from Jesus sorrowful. He perceived that he had a lot to lose. The tragedy was that he stood to gain infinitely more than he had, yet he walked away spiritually empty and on a trajectory of losing even the temporal wealth he clung to.

Everyone who comes into the kingdom has allowed Jesus to deal with their particular hindrance to his Lordship. No one has anything to bring to the Lord's table of salvation except an empty belly. 

Matthew 11:25-30

"I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father for such was your gracious will.  All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

My Counterfeit Pen

The average American consumes anywhere from several hundred to several thousand messages per day.  Regardless of their activities which would cause the fluctuation of message intake, the fire hose of consumer marketing is relentless.  We face a steady and forceful stream of what to think, what we need, how we should feel, what we should value, and what we should consume.  Recently I was in a supermarket with my wife and could not continue a conversation with her or think clearly because of the tyrannical volume of a large flat screen television towering in the store's high traffic perimeter.  It was an advertisement blaring to passersby.  We made our way to an interior aisle only to face another flat screen mounted to its end loudly proclaiming which toothpaste we should purchase.  I was annoyed and after a few more interrupted attempts to connect with her I was browbeaten into silence, only there was no silence.  The two televisions jarbled each others' communication as we quickened our pace.  Having a degree in communication studies and ten years in sales, I was aware of what the advertisements were designed to do to me.  I put my hands in my hoodie pocket and thought in defiance about how ineffective the ads were on me, or was I wrong?  About a week ago I met a friend for breakfast.  I was looking forward to catching up with him over coffee.  We sat down among the smell of baked bread and eggs and began to talk. Our eyes squinted as we leaned in before we realized that we were struggling to focus due to the loud pop song that rained down on us from the speakers in the ceiling.  The immoral and incredibly stupid song desired to take up space in our minds with the useless and base premise from which its lyrics were constructed.  The poor song writing combined with a simple and repetitive rhythm would have been effective in making a memory groove in our brains had we not grabbed our breakfast and headed outside.  Is this constant immersion annoying yet harmless? Or is it destructive to the person wishing to filter the sources that influence and shape their thoughts?  We have advertisements, political agendas posing as news, entertainment overload, all mass mediated to us.  Recently I began to notice how often I find myself reading personalized license plates and bumper stickers while I am driving.  I don't know why I have the impulse to read someone's attempt at summarizing themselves on the rear portion of their car.  It cannot be because the license plated attempts are interesting or helpful in any way.  Is it because I have become addicted to taking in messages?  Are we cursed to be sated yet insatiable?  When the billboard I drive by portrays a guy acquiring the beautiful lady's attention because he bought the right type of soft drink, I am confident in my ability to analyze, discern, and discredit the message within the ad.  I am less confident in my ability to shield my mind from the residual effect from thousands of injections of similar messages into my brain each and every day.  We are all effected by the hypodermic needle of mass mediated messages.  The "hypodermic needle theory" implies that mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as powerful influences on behavior change within people groups.  Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including: the fast rise and popularization of radio and television, the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda, the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the influence of motion pictures on children, and Hitler's monopolization of mass mediated messages during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.  The theory proposes that mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘injecting’ them with the respective message designed to trigger the desired response.  There is no escape from the effect of the message in this model.  People are seen as passive while having a lot of media material "injected" into them. People end up thinking what they are told to think because there is no other source of information. 

In addition to the increase of mass mediated volume, we have the fact that in the last century the impetus of advertisements have undergone a sinister metamorphosis to deal with. In the recent past advertisements were designed to represent the quality of the given product to the consumer.  These ads would have boasted in the hand-stitching of a garment or the endurance of the material the product was manufactured from etc. While manipulation and appealing to emotions in order to persuade is timeless, the sophistication of the techniques began increasing while the public's education and ability to analyze began decreasing.  Studies of how to affect the human psyche in order to persuade the masses for profit were on the rise.  The questions became: What does a human being really want and need? - How can we attach the product or service we wish to sell to the realization of these deeply human needs to be loved, to belong, to be accepted, to be safe?  Advertisements began depicting product in the hands of the very happy and fulfilled consumer who are as a result of purchase, surrounded by beautiful and loving people.  Modern advertisements do not only seek to represent the quality of the product or service.  They are carefully crafted to subtly offer to fill needs they can never meet.  These subliminal suggestions are easy enough to dissect and discredit for anyone who has learned how to analyze messages or for anyone who has a mental mainframe of reference they can compare the injected message to but it is the overall residue of many thousands of injections that concerns me.  It is also troubling how much of the education offered to future generations is one that is walking away from the classical approach of teaching the student to think.  The learned ability to pick apart a message and to hold it to the light of truth for inspection is the education that will keep a free people free.  The most heinous marketing utilizes the poison of fear only to offer the antidote at a price. Upon observation one may see that fear as persuasion is prevalent. 

As a Christian, I find it problematic to have a continual flow of messages approach me boasting of a product or service that will fulfill in me a need that only the Lord can provide for.  I am grateful to have the mainframe of reference that functions in my life much like a counterfeit pen. If you have ever held employment dealing with large amounts of cash and the public you probably know what I am referring to.  A counterfeit one hundred dollar bill may deceive even the sharpest inspecting eye, but with one swipe of the counterfeit pen, the mark it leaves on the bill eliminates deceit.  There has been no lasting peace, fulfillment, or joy in my life that is not directly or indirectly from my connection to Jesus. Knowing him, his word, and his goodness is my counterfeit pen. I am often weary from the onslaught of messages that oppose his words and his teachings. I am susceptible to being deceived and to begin pursuing something infinitely less valuable, so I pray often that the Lord will renew my mind and fill my mind with his word.  He is faithful to remain present in my struggling, renewing my mind, and assisting me in the fight against conforming to this world.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Rooted

Almost twenty years ago a Messianic Jewish friend and pastor of the Christian & Missionary Alliance congregation, Hope in Messiah gave me the best advice I have ever received. By getting to know me he could see that I was ambitious and loved to strategize and accomplish goals. Having three small children by the time I was twenty six, I was trying to figure out how I was going to navigate to a place to be able to provide for them, while wondering if I should enter into vocational ministry, and desiring to be closer to God, his words to me were well timed and very impactful. I still live by them to this day.  The advice was biblical and simple. It took the western focus on externals and flipped it on its head.  He agreed with my overarching reach to be a good disciple of Jesus, a good husband, a good father, and a good worker for whoever I would work under. He recognized my driven approach from his experience and loved me enough to speak from his heart.

He instructed me to think of myself as a tree. He explained how I would never have sustainable success in the areas I outlined by merely doing external things because this was like a tree concentrating and flexing its bark in an attempt to force new growth to bud, bloom, and bear fruit.  I can still hear his voice and see his eyes through his glasses as he told me to continually treat the root.  This made sense to me but the implications began to spread in my mind like ink in water. He went on in his usual thorough way to explain that my heart was the root. If the tree's root is healthy and strong then new growth and the bearing of fruit will be a natural byproduct. My ultimate focus was never to shift or be updated. I was to feed my heart scripture and cultivate my love of the Lord by abiding in and walking with him. He causes the growth. It has been interesting since then seeing this advice at work over the years. There has been a lot of outward activity but it has been the natural flow from my heart instead of striving at the branch level to accomplish.  Knowing him is loving him. Loving him is loving what he loves and hating what he hates.
The key is a relationship to a person. This is illustrated well by John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. The title - the disciple whom Jesus loves was the descriptive summary title John gave himself. It is his way of saying there is no higher title. John is often depicted in the last supper as leaning his head on Jesus. John fertilized his root with the words and relationship from his Messiah and was content to let this summarize him as a person.
This internal focus on a relationship and enjoying the grace and the friendship of God through the finished work of Jesus is alien to our world and as such we are offered daily invitations to shift our focus. This focus is not an arrival.  Since God is infinite and we are not, our growing capacity to delight in him will be an eternal process.  In my prayers I am often asking the Lord to put in my heart what simply is not there.  "Lord, create in me a clean heart, renew a steadfast spirit in me, and give me a hunger and thirst for you when my appetites and affections want to uproot and stray."  We must be watchful over our roots and be mindful of how we define success. May we define it relationally and be firmly rooted in our Lord.

Because They are Hungry.

It's a scene I look forward to. It interrupts the alleyway behind one of the supermarkets where I park my box-truck. It repeats itself like clockwork and the context is almost always the same. Asphalt radiates the night's cold and the dumpsters smell like themselves. His brown compact car's small engine approaching sounds distinguished. The large delivery trucks' diesel engines idle in the morning's dark. In contrast, his car approaching sounds like a bumblebee. The cats also differentiate and recognize the small motor's nasally whine. They quickly run from their hiding places to the meeting spot beside a chain-link fence. They are always excited to see Cat-Man and they meow loudly as they scamper to the curb and wait for him. He carries supplies from his trunk, pours fresh water from a gallon jug, and leaves food for his friends. I hear him talking to them but can never make out what he says. He pays attention to each one and pets them lovingly.  Sometimes there are several cats and sometimes only a few. He never seems hurried.

I always pause to take it in: an act of kindness in a cold world, a giver among a multitude of takers.  One day I waited until he was returning to his car to talk to him. I asked him why he did it. He looked at me rather strangely and said, "Because they are hungry." He wasn't looking for attention or approval.  He was not interested in having a dialogue about it.  He bid me a good day and drove away. He always comes back. I always observe. It has become liturgy and a reminder for me. I am not sure that he knows, when he feeds the cats from his kind heart, in a way, he also feeds me.

The Best Place.

I was listening to a song recently that mentioned the Christian’s mansion in heaven. I thought it was probably referring to Jesus’ words recorded in John 14:2. In the King James version of John 14:2 Jesus says to his disciples: “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” The English Standard version is: “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” The New American Standard Bible version is: “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”

This idea of mansions in heaven is one of those things I have heard referenced here and there over the span of my life and just accepted it on the surface to mean generally we will be very happy in heaven, but to be honest the idea of each disciple having a mansion in heaven has always felt a little strange to me. I guess it’s partly because Jesus’ time on earth was spent in open relational faithfulness and nearly constant sacrificial service to others in joy. We can see this in an encounter Jesus had with a person who wanted to follow him. “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9:57-58)

In contrast, when I think of mansions I think of enormous buildings of comfort where one goes in to chill by themselves or only with those closest to them as extensions of themselves. Well, maybe once in a while a mansion dweller would throw a party and invite others in. Still it just didn’t seem to fit. I wondered if the idea of having a mansion to ourselves in heaven was one of those places where something may have been translated to English clumsily or have a film of culture coating the original meaning. The Bible tells us not to seek earthly riches but to seek the kingdom of God. It’s not like we are told to avoid seeking earthly riches even though they are really the best stuff to have. We are to seek God himself, his word, and out of the overflow of that love seek the connection, enjoyment, and service to others because that’s the best stuff to have. We are not to seek earthly riches because they are temporal and empty. We are to seek relational riches because they are eternal and robust. So why when speaking to his disciples would Jesus refer to our dwelling place in heaven specifically as being a mansion? Why would the capstone to our life living one way be eternal life living another way? I began to study it deeper and found that Jesus wasn’t speaking about heaven at all.

John 14:1-3 is not about heaven. Nowhere in the Scriptures is heaven referred to as ”My Father’s house,” though in John 2:16 Jesus called the temple in Jerusalem “My Father’s house.” Jesus speaks from the context of the Old Testament which repeatedly named the Lord’s house or dwelling place as the place God chose to make his presence manifest. In the Psalms God’s house or dwelling is often the temple in Jerusalem. Some Scriptures refer to God’s house as the entirety of creation or the whole of the universe. In Isaiah 66:1 God himself asks: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?'“ Psalm 90:1, and 91:9 depict God himself as our dwelling place.

The King James version’s use of the English word mansion is misleading. “Mansions” translates to English from the Greek word: μοναὶ (monai) which means lodging, dwelling-place, room, abode, or mansion. It is derived from the Greek word (meno) which means a staying, i.e. residence. However, in medieval times a mansion was a room and was not an enormous and posh house. Most translations use the English words many rooms, or many dwelling places instead of many mansions. Jesus is not saying that in heaven we will each live in large mansions or in rooms or cubbyholes. In Hebrew culture, a Father’s house was where extended family lived and rooms were added on as the family grew. This would have been a familiar illustration for the disciples.

Another familiar reference would have been the many rooms along the outer wall of the temple in Jerusalem where the priests ministered to people privately. So, Jesus was not saying that he would take his disciples to heaven (although that is true as well). He said I will take you to myself. He was going to the cross to atone for sin, conquer the power of death, and to resurrect in order to prepare a place for us. The temple would no longer be built by human hands. Jesus would send the Holy Spirit and the disciples would be the many rooms filled with the Spirit. Jesus was saying to his disciples that our dwelling place both now and forever is in him. He was also saying that like the temple priests who ministered to people in the rooms built into the outer temple wall in Jerusalem, his followers would have a place or position of purpose to minister in his name. This purpose he has given to all of his disciples, not just vocational ministers. I hope this is an encouragement to you. If you ever feel like you don’t have a place in this crazy world you can abide in Jesus. If you belong to Jesus now your only real place is in him and him in you. No power can alter or take that away. There is no better place.